I believe that the ability to play a musical instrument is a gift from God,and so it should be cultivated as a precious treasure. I received this gift at birth and grew up banging on tables,my legs,and anything I could find.At age nine I tried banging on a real drum during one of my uncle's church services in Sandy Bay, Jamaica,and was taken off the instument in the middle of the service.That kind of treatment continued,while trying to play at my dad's church in Kingston,for about a year,until I gradually improved. Even though I did piano lessons before the age of ten,I never tried to play at church, until both of the church's piano players migrated to the United States, when I was eleven.